Trimeresurus insularis is a highly venomous viper subspecies endemic to the Lesser Sunda Islands (Indonesia and East Timor). The photo that heads this post presents a specimen that gobbles up a whole frog, while another specimen approaches to investigate, blending itself with its body and pretending that the snake has two heads.
The photograph, by Japanese photographer Chin Leong Teo, has been awarded an honorable mention in the competition All About Photo Contest 2021. Its title is, most conveniently, Two Headed Viper. Here you have the rest of the winners.
They do not have eyelids, ears or move their eyes
Trimeresurus insularis It is a species of poisonous snakes in the Viperidae family. Those of its kind are, by term, relatively small snakes, mainly arboreal, cwith thin bodies and prehensile tails.
They are usually green or blue.However, some species of yellow, black, orange or even red markings can also be found. The scale includes 21 rows of dorsal scales in the middle part of the body, 156-164 / 156-167 ventral scales in males / females, 70-75 / 54-59 subcaudal scales in males / females, and 7-12 supralabial scales.
These reptiles do not have eyelids, ears, or move their eyes. For that reason, they feel the vibrations through the ground so they can hear. Snakes shed their entire skin almost three times a year, in a process known as ecdysis, or shedding..
Part of the success of the contest’s winning photo is that it appears, at first glance, to be a mystical two-headed snake. But nevertheless, double-headed snakes, unless a mutation occurs during embryonic development, does not exist in nature. Those who say they have come across one were probably not a serpieten, but rather an amphisbene, a reptile barely half a meter in length that excavates underground galleries and has the ability to move forward as well as backward.